


All That Is Gold

by Tellescora



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Death of minor characters, Don't get your hopes up though., Everyone Is Gay, Fantasy, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), I like to make my characters suffer, I used the random page button to find ships, Implied Sexual Content, Just tagging because I'm bored, Just tagging because I'm having writers block, Lance as Pike, M/M, Monsters and Mana, SO MUCH FRICKING ANGST, Shiro is gay (obviously), Smut maaaaaaybeee?, Torture, Voltron Lions as Actual Lions, and so is Adam, did I mention torture?, keith is bad at feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-07-13 00:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16006700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tellescora/pseuds/Tellescora
Summary: In the world of Monsters & Mana many things are different, but some things, like the relationship between Keith and Lance, never change... even if they have a few magical complications to overcome.





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> Whew, my first fic, bear with me. Come bug me on my tumblr: https://tellescora.tumblr.com/

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost, The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.  
-J. R. R. Tolkien

Chapter I

In the Kingdom of Altea, there were two types of people: normals and gifted. Being gifted didn’t always mean you got the best job, or any job at all in some cases. In Lance’s case that is.

Sure he was special, and sure he could have gotten good work as a guard for King Alfor and his whiney, teenage brat her Oh-So-Special Highness Princess Allura, but the truth was, Lance didn’t particularly want a job.

Being a thief was a pretty good gig, made easier by his unusual teleportation gift and he had more than enough money to live comfortably… in a tiny one room apartment… in Coran’s inn… with a wizard named Hunk and a dwarf named Pidge… Comfortable? Who needed comfortable? He laughed at those who needed comfort! Heh.

The knock came early one spring morning when he was relaxing on the apartment’s battered couch after a particularly good night of pickpocketing the drunks who’d staggered out of Coran’s bar, too intoxicated to notice his nimble thief’s fingers sneaking into their pockets and removing considerable amounts of their gold.

As he lay in the apartment on the musty couch listening to his roommates argue about how to correctly move the knight in a chess game his large brown cat ears picked up the sound of footsteps in the narrow hall outside the room. 

Lance’s gift wasn’t the only thing weird about him, he had to be a nagual too, so he could turn into a mountain lion. Most naguals, and there weren’t very many of them left thanks to the Galra, could turn into more common animals like dogs. Only the really powerful ones like his ma and pa and bajillions of other family members could turn into pumas.

Lance wasn’t really sure he qualified as powerful. He wasn’t much to look at, with his brown hair that was the perfect mix of shaggy and spikey held up by a reddish bandana and a raggedy elbow-length cloak of the same color. He thought it made him look cool and roguish, but Pidge had assured him he looked like a homeless dork. Under that he wore a navy blue chest piece thing with gold lining and wicked shoulderpads that he had stolen from some classy elvish noble who had made the mistake of wandering down the wrong roads in Altea City. And under that he wore a simple baggy gray shirt and pants with the sleeves rolled up and secured with medical tape he had swiped from Hunk. Lots of layers was the key, Lance was all about layers.

Altea was a cold kingdom, it was mostly mountains. It truly was lovely, especially in the summer with the lush fields of pink juniberries that grew in the valleys and the crystal clear blue skies, but the mountain peaks with their shimmering white snow were almost a beautiful.

But the real pride of Altea was it’s cities. Sleek elegant buildings made of white stones were stacked on one another in amazing architectural designs so that they towered around the pedestrians lined the streets and there was always a restaurant or library or public garden just around the corner. Of course there were also the back alleys where the impressive white buildings had been built so close together there was little room between them. Those back alleys were where Lance operated.

A moment or so after he heard the footsteps stop, there was a single, sharp knock on the door. Pidge hopped up to get it. She was in casual clothes today, brown leggings under a green long sleeved tunic secured by a wide leather belt. Her heavy dwarven armour was lying in a corner of the room, collecting dust and providing housing for several families of spiders.

Her tufty brown-gold hair bounded up and down along with her as she jumped severel times until she finally reached the door handle and admitted whoever was outside the apartment.

The old door swung open slowly and creakily, showing first Coran the inkeeper with his neatly done orange shoulder length and mustache. His well-ironed blue shirt and tan pants were spotless as usual and covered up by a white apron.

“This is their room, ma’am,” he said to his companion, a member of the Altean guard, recognizable by her white uniform.

“Excellent,” said the pink haired guardswoman “I’ll take it from here.” Her blue eyes swept over their apartment, taking in the wooden walls, raggedy furniture, equipment collecting dust and last of all the inhabinatents. She was very obviously disgusted. “Lady and gentlemen,” she said, voice as bland as oatmeal “My name is Commander Hira of the Altean Kingdom Army and the three of you are under arrest.”

“A-Arrest?” Hunk spluttered, quickly standing up from the cushion where he had been meditating after his spat with Pidge “Why? What are the charges?”

“Yeah,” Lance said, teleporting off the couch and reappearing in front of Hira. Teleporting up in people’s faces usually seemed to unnerve them, but she didn’t even flinch.

“Thievery,” she said coolly to him and then addressed Hunk and Pidge “And you two are charged with harboring a criminal.”

Hunk shifted uncomfortably in his robes. He only had the one pair of robes, but it seemed like they could never be dirtied. Lance, fascinated by this, had ‘accidently’ spilled milk from Coran’s cow Kaltenecker on them but the stain vanished mysteriously. Lance had taken this as a personal insult.

“Criminal?” Lance pouted “I don’t think I’ve done anything bad enough to be called a criminal.”

In response Hira grabbed his forearm and held it up, showing the thick gold bracelet on his wrist. “This bracelet you’re wearing, happens to belong to Queen Azura. One of her servants was bringing it back from the jewelers and took a wrong turn around Quiznak Plaza. According to her she found herself in an alleyway and was jumped by a fox man who stole the queen’s bracelet and disappeared.”

“Well there you have it,” Lance booped Hira’s nose with his long brown tail “I’m not a fox man.”

“But you could easily be mistaken for a fox man,” she pointed out “And you have the bracelet, so I at least need to bring you in for questioning.”

“And if I’m found guilty?”

“Then you pay a four thousand groggery fee or go to jail for two years.” Hira said, as she forcefully turned Lance around and shackled his arms behind his back, but not before removing the bracelet. She beckoned for Hunk and Pidge to follow her and marched Lance out the door and into the cramped hall. They walked down the stairs and through the bar until they reached the door, which Hira held open for him.

It was humiliating. Everyone stared at him, whispering and laughing. A few of the men at the bar jeered and yelled about how the thief had finally gotten what was coming for him. (Lance may have made bets with them and failed to follow through.) Coran’s bartender Adam watched in confusion, not realizing that the cup of mead he was filling had overflowed.

Lance closed his eyes for much of the carriage ride to the Castle of Lions, where King Alfor held court. He didn’t even open them, when Pidge prodded him one two many times or when Hunk kept clearing his throat or even when the reached the castle. The Castle of Lions was supposedly very impressive up close, but Lance had seen it plenty of times from afar, it’s huge white walls towering over even the tallest buildings in the city. They say the castle had been built by five magical lions from the Quintessance Realm. The lions brought color into the world and gifted King Alfor with the knowledge of where to find them should he ever need them to fight a great evil. When all in one place, the lions were called Voltron. Lance personally thought this was a load of shit and ignored anyone who tried to talk to him about it. King Alfor was a fucking asshole who cared more about spoiling his daughter then stopping the Galra from conquering the kingdoms of his friends and allies. Their neighbors the Balmerans had already fallen and that meant that Altea had no dependable source of power, but Alfor just shrugged it off. If he had a weapon to stop the Galra and acted like this anyway he was the worst kind of villain.  
Hira lead them through the castle to a room with a giant Balmeran crystal hanging from the ceiling. She shoved him on to a slightly raised circular dias facing a giant throne where king alfor sat. One either side of the thrones was a slightly smaller throne, Princess Allura was sitting on her father’s left and Queen Azura was on his left.

Lance focused on the Queen and Princess first, because he didn’t want to look up at the king. They were startlingly similar. Azura was dark skinned and beautiful, with flowing icy hair. She wore a pink dress with poofy bell sleeves and a slimmer white dress underneath that one so you could see the long white sleeves under the pink ones. Apparently she was all about layers too. Lance could relate to that.

Allura was the spinning image of her mother. They had matching golden circlets and purple earrings. They had matching hair. They even had matching faces, although Queen Azura’s face was older and had smile lines. Allura’s clothes were the only other distinguishable difference. Allura also wore a dress, but hers had light blue sleeves with a darker blue bodice and shoulder pads. The actual skirt part of the dress was white with a light blue line running down the center and pink trim. To top the look off she also wore a built in cloak that was white and pink. Very trendy.

Lance looked at the king last. King Alfor was quite an imposing sight in his white armor with golden trim and huge blue cloak. His white hair that Lance knew hung to his shoulders was pulled back and his beard was slightly shaggy, giving him the appearance of someone who actually fucking did things other than sit on a throne all day looking imposing.

“Hello Lance,” the king rumbled.

“Hello your highness,” Lance snarled, putting all the venom he could muster into his voice on the words ‘your highness’.

The king laughed, which was not the reaction Lance had been expecting at all. “You were right, Hira, he’s perfect for the job. Unchain him please.”

Hira obliged, and Lance stood up, rubbing his sore wrists together where the chains had cut into them. “So,” he said “Why exactly am I here?”

“I have a job for you three,” Alfor said, beckoning Pidge and Hunk, who had been standing uncertainty behind Hira. “I’m sorry I had to quote unquote arrest you,” the king continued once he was satisfied that Hunk and Pidge were close enough “But I needed to make a spectacle to show the citizens that I am still doing my best to rule them (Lance rolled his eyes) and I needed to bring you three to the Castle so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.”

Pidge looked ruffled at that statement but she said in her usual snarky tone “What’s the job?” 

“I need you three to assemble Voltron.” 

Lance immediately broke into uncontrollable laughter “Voltron? Oh your highness you really are a crackpot! Voltron, yeah right!” he abruptly stopped when he realized no one else was laughing.

Allura glared at him “My father-” she began, but Alfor put a hand up to stop her.

“Peace Allura,” he said gently “Yes Lance, I need you to assemble Voltron. The lions are not a myth, they are quite real. We need to find Paladins for the lions so we can fight back against the Galra.”

Lance snorted “I’m sorry,” he giggled “But this is really funny. You fighting against the Galra,” he clarified “After you spent the last ten years sitting on your ass as Emperor Zarkon conquers more and more of the continent.”

Alfor shifted uncomfortably in his throne. Lance grinned, he a made the king, the fucking king, squirm. “It has come to my attention, that perhaps I should stop turning a blind eye to Zarkon’s bloodthirsty nature on account of our former friendship.” Alfor finally said. “Allura will talk to you about your mission, I have urgent matters to attend to.” And with that, Alfor got up and hurried out of the room. 

Queen Azura laughed silently and made a bunch of quick hand gestures at Allura that Lance recognized as ASL, Altean Sign Language. 

Allura groaned and relayed the message to Lance, Pidge and Hunk “Mom says that Lance deserves major points for being such a jackass.” 

“Tell her that I thank her from the depths of my heart.” Lance said innocently, as Pidge and Hunk cracked up behind him.

Allura relayed the message and Azura smiled and flipped him off before getting up and leaving the room. She was obviously the cool parent.

“So,” Allura crossed her arms “My dad thinks you three are Paladins of Voltron. You can ride the lions,” she clarified, noticing their blank looks. “And I’m supposed to tell you about your lions.” she looked anything but happy as she turned to Pidge “Pidge, you will be the Palidain of the Green Lion. The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Hunk you get the Yellow Lion. The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty. Lance gets the Red Lion. The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone.”

“Sounds like me babe,” he said casually putting his arm around her “And since I knew you were going to ask, yes I’m single.”

She shoved him off, looking somewhat disgusted “I can see why.”

“Ouch,” PIdge snickered “I can see I’m going to like you, Princess, but you’ve only named the Paladins of three of the Voltron Lions, who shall pilot the remaining two?”

“Well I will be the Paladin of the Blue Lion, and lastly the one who will pilot the leader, the Back Lion…”

“Yes?” they ask in unison, as Allura pauses.

“Keith Kogane.” she finally spits out, obviously disgusted that Keith would be joining the team.

Two word echo in Lance’s head. Oh shit.

 

A few weeks later...

Keith was sitting in a tree. He had been sitting in a tree for a long time. His butt was numb. He was still sitting in a tree. After receiving an anonymous tip from a hooded stranger he met in a bar in Altea City about where Emperor Zarkon’s prisoners were being taken, he had immediately set off for that location, which was a bay he could easily see from the tree.

The tree was on the edge of the Balmera, the stretch of land that was once the home of the peaceful Balmerans before the Galra took over. Now the Balmerans were their slaves, forced to work in underground tunnels mining Balmeran crystals for the Galra as a power source.

All of the Balmeran Kingdom was brown and dead. As legend had it, the Balmeran Kingdom was built on the remains of the last Balmera. When the Balmera died it’s body was buried and fossilized. The Balmerans built their kingdom on it and began mining inside of its body for valuable resources like ivory from it’s tusks and most importantly the crystals produced by its body systems. 

Then, the Galra took over and forced the peaceful Balmerans to mine too much of the Balmera until there was barely any left and the trees with roots that had grown used to the rich nutrients in the soil had started to die. Henceforth, the tree Keith was sitting in was dead with sad brown leaves. They say that the trees used to be covered in crystals, he would have liked to see that.

The reason he was here in the dead tree was a simple five letter word: Shiro. Shiro was really the only one who’d ever seen him for him instead of his parentage. Keith was half Galra. Yaaaay.

Being half Galra offered many good opportunities, Keith could either get arrested by the Altean Alliance for being Galra since all Galra were enemies, or work for the Galra destroying entire cultures but only ever be second class no matter how hard he worked because his father was human, or go into hiding. He had chosen option three.

On one particularly rainy day years ago when Keith was nineteen he had come across a man sitting on a fence on the side of the road. The man was wearing a large black cloak with a hood that seemed to have no protective use as he was looking up toward the sky and letting the rain soak into his face. 

Keith had noticed he wore white armor with gold trim under the large black cloak, which Keith knew to be Altean even though this man was certainly human. He’d decided to give the guy on the fence a wide berth and hope he wasn’t noticed, when the stranger said “Hello.”

“Hi,” Keith said suspiciously.

“Lovely day isn’t it?” the man, who he would later learn was named Shiro, said pleasantly, seeming oblivious to the fact that there was rain running in rivulets down his face.

“Erm, not really,” Keith said awkwardly, trying to exit the conversation before Shiro could open his eyes and see the Galra aspects of Keith.

Keith didn’t look fully Galra, but he definitely didn’t look human. The Galra were a species of demon that had crossed over from the netherworld a long time ago. Because of that, their descendents, even the ones that weren’t ‘pure’ looked somewhat demonic. Keith looked human, except for three things: two tall obsidian horns curved out of his black hair, lavender dragon wings protruded from his back, and his irises were yellow with slit pupils. His skin was a creamy peach color, however, with made it impossible to pass as a ‘pure’ Galra in those rare times when he needed to do so.

“Well,” Shiro said, opening his eyes slowly “I guess you don’t fully appreciate rain days.”

Keith had flinched as Shiro’s eyes had traveled over him, taking in his horns, the red cloak he always wore with the slits for his wings cut in them, the wings themselves, the knife at his belt, and finally his face. A face marked by the eyes of a demon. “So,” Shiro said “What’s your name?”

“Keith,” Keith said, wondering why Shiro hadn’t drawn his sword and attacked.

“Well, Keith, I’m Shiro,” the older man said “Nice to meet you.”

“You too I guess.”

“You guess?” Shiro laughed “Well, I feel so welcome! Say Keith, what if I bought you a drink, you look like you could use one.”

“No, I’m good.”

Shiro grinned and leaned against the fence “You’re not very social, are you?” he said, looking somewhat amused.

Keith shrugged “Comes with the territory I suppose.”

Shiro’s grin widened “I am definitely buying you a drink” he decided.

“Fine,” Keith said “But just warning you, going somewhere populated with me is going to get you arrested. Or someone with probably throw rocks at us. Or we’ll get rocks thrown at us and then we’ll be arrested.”

“Sounds like an average day to me!” Shiro joked, “C’mon, I know the guy who owns the bar. It’ll be fun!”

A ghost of a smile passed Keith’s lips as he fondly remembered his first meeting with Shiro. They had stuck together, as close as brothers, since then until Shiro had decided to join the army and never come home. 

He still carried the letter with him, the one that had been scent to him by the Garrison, a subset of the Altean Alliance telling him Shiro wasn’t coming home. Of course, had the Alliance known he was half Galra the note would have come with armed guards, but they had no idea that Shiro’s “brother” was a demon.

The faint trace of a smile gone from his lips he fished the crumpled note out of one of the many pockets concealed inside his cloak.

The Altean Alliance deeply regrets to inform you that your brother Captain Tadashi Shirogane has been reported missing in action since September the third when his team was ambushed in Kerberos. Please accept our deepest sympathy. 

Keith had stared at those thirty-six words for an hour before they finally sank in. Shiro was MIA, he might not ever come back.

It had seemed to all happen too fast, and before he knew it, a year had passed. A year of following threads of information as breakable as spider silk, faint rumors, anything at all that might get him closer to finding Shiro. So now he was here, sitting in a dead tree watching a bay because he knew that the Galra military ships threw their rebellious prisoners into the depths to drown.

He was so intent on watching the bay for any signs of life that he didn’t feel the shift in weight as someone teleported onto the branch behind him. And he was caught completely off guard when someone’s hands grabbed his face, one hand over his eyes and the other over his mouth, and quickly pulled him off the branch and into the void below.


	2. II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which an author is frustrated and writes a very short chapter with far too much action crammed into it.
> 
> or
> 
> Shiro is unconscious, Keith is angry, Lance is Lance, Allura is being weird, and Hunk and Pidge are useless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually managed to stay in my timeline! (^ w ^) The writing's really cruddy though, so sorry.

Everything is blue, His hands, His pills, His jeans  
And now I’m covered in the colors, pulled apart at the seams  
And it’s blue  
-Halsey

Chapter II  
When Keith regained consciousness his face was against a tree and his head was buzzing with questions. Why did he hurt so fucking much? Why was he smushed against a tree? How much time had passed? What if- What if he was too late?

That thought snapping him into a more focused state, he sat bolt upright, jarring his arms, which he now saw were handcuffed in front of him and tied to the trunk of the tree. The cuffs were made of Altean metal, which proved his suspicions: Allura had finally found him. Fuck.

Luckily, he had prepared for this. His horns were useful lock picks, a fact no one seemed to notice. He maneuvered a bit until his right horn clicked into the lock before shaking his head a few times until he heard the lock click open.

Finally. He stood up, gingerly rubbing his wrists where the cuffs had cut into the skin. He didn’t take the time to look around, simply flapped his powerful wings once and took off into the air. It was not nearly stealthy enough, but he only cared about making it to the Galran prison ship before it was too late, if it wasn’t already.

Keith soared in hawklike circles in the clouds above the bay, eyes frantically scanning the dark water for signs of life. He noted that there was a faint glow in the east, as if the sun was rising, which meant he had lost an entire night since the sun had just gone down when he had first began his watch. If Allura and her idiots had lost his only chance of saving Shiro he swore he was going to kill them all.

After only a few minutes a Galran ship appeared out of the mist. Keith shuddered to think of what would have happened if he’d been only a few minutes late in waking up.  
Silently he watched as Galra officials rounded up the prisoners, mostly humans, elves, and dwarves, and began shoving them off the side, bodies still bound by thick black chains.

Keith wanted to be able to help, but he couldn’t blow his cover. He knew that the mermaids and mermen who lived in the bay would do their best to get the prisoners to safety, but it was still hard to watch. 

Finally, all the prisoners had been thrown overboard,but where was Shiro? Keith wasn’t sure what he’d do if Shiro wasn’t on this ship. Maybe kill himself? That sounded nice right now.

The two guards turned and ran down a set of stairs, leaving the deck completely deserted. Keith, suspicious of their odd behavior and the apparent lack of Shiro decided to follow them.

He quickly touched down and snuck into the ship, knocking out the guards and using the YOU ARE HERE signs to navigate his way through the labyrinth of cell-lined corridors until he reached a room called the Experimentation Room. And strapped to a table in the center of the room was Shiro.

 

I was strange that they’d met no Galra officers in the ship, but Lance didn’t pause to think about it. He, Allura, Pidge and Hunk raced down the corridors until Hunk literally tripped over the first body.

“Knocked out cold,” Allura pronounced, standing up from where she had been kneeling over the fallen Galra soldier “From the look of it, she lost a fight to someone and they continued on their way.”

“Dammit,” Pidge muttered “That means they might be after this Tadashi person too. We have to find him first, he’s our only way of convincing Keith to join Voltron.”  
“Right,” Lance muttered “So we really need to pick up our pace, this Galra’s been knocked out for at least ten minutes.”

Eight eyes widened as the shock that someone most likely had already beaten them to ‘this Tadashi person’ set in. As one they stood and took off down the hallway following the trail of unconscious Galra.

In a different situation, Lance would have laughed at how they seemed to be able to read each other's minds when just a fortnight ago they had been nothing more than a bickering band of Paladins thrown together on some whim of fate.

It took them several twists and turns to get where they were going, but once there the four of them stood in the doorway of the Experimentation Room gasping like fish. The fight in front of them was simply too captivating to turn away from, as if even one of them blinked they would miss the final blow that ended it all.

Three Galra druids were fighting a lone figure with a bandana tied over the lower half of his face next to where Tadashi was strapped on to the table. He was obviously a skilled fighter, not needing the weapons at his belt to send the Galra flying away.

The man’s foot went up and he roundhouse kicked one of the druids into a wooden table covered in vials of nefarious colored liquids. The masked Galra screamed in pain before collapsing, unconscious, as whichever of the bottles that held sleeping potions did their work.

Not pausing to see what had happened, the figure immediately sidestepped a lunging druid and tripped him on the way past.

The final druid desperately threw himself at the man, only to be savagely kicked back into the experimentation table and fall to the floor, out cold. 

Barely pausing to see if the druids were actually out, the man- no the Galra- frantically leaped over their bodies and stood a Tadashi’s bedside (Tableside?), eyes widening on disbelief. 

Lance couldn’t believe that he had missed such an important detail like the fucking HORNS and WINGS this guy had. Apparently he had been too busy staring at this stranger’s muscles as he fought to notice anything important. But, to be fair, this Galra had pretty impressive muscles.

The Galra warrior pulled down his bandana “Shiro?” he said tentatively, turning Tadashi’s (Shiro’s?) face toward him to check that this was who he was looking for.

He gasped and quickly unsheathed his knife, cutting Tadashi/Shiro loose. He slung Shiro’s arm over his shoulder and lifted him up before turning toward the door, a look of grim determination on his face.

The assembled Palidains gasped at different times as each of them recognized Keith’s face. 

He stared at them for a minute too and they might have gone on staring for forever had Lance not grown impatient and teleported to the other side of Shiro and helped Keith hold him up.

“Listen, I don’t know why you’re here, Keith, but we’re saving Shiro.” he snapped.

“Who are you?” Keith asked, “And why the hell should I let you help me when you’re obviously here with Allura?”

“Who am I?” Lance sounded incredulous “The name’s Lance.”

“And do I know you?”

“Well no, you were unconscious for most of our time together, but that’s no the point! Look man, whatever history you have with Allura, put that aside and focus on saving Shiro. Also, touch me.”

“Excuse me?” Keith leaned away from Lance a little and raised one eyebrow in a look of creeped out bemusement.

“Just do it, I need to get us out of here. There are probably more Galra on the way right now.”

Keith sighed and hesitantly reached the hand he wasn’t using to hold on to Shiro across the unconscious man’s back so his fingers rested on the curve of Lance’s spine.

Allura, Hunk, and Pidge also all set their hands on Lance although it was a little awkward and Pidge ended up holding on to the top of Lance’s head while riding on Hunk’s back.  
Lance teleported back to their camp in the woods just in time, as the remaining Galra guards charged into the room, the Paladins were gone.

 

The already dead trees were looking a little worse for wear by the time Keith was done punching them. Keith was looking a little worse for wear as well. His knuckles were bleeding heavily but the tail end of the adrenaline from the fight kept most of the pain away.

Hunk looked like he wanted to bandage Keith’s hands, but every time he moved to help Keith shot him a look sharp enough to shear rocks in half and he shuffled back awkwardly mumbling something about making sure Pidge was okay. 

Finally, he wore himself out and slumped against a tree. Hunk sighed in relief and handed him cloth to bandage his bleeding hands with.

Keith stared defiantly at Allura and finally spat “What are you doing here?” He put as much venom as he could muster into the words, gratified when each of them visibly flinched.

“Keith,” Allura started “We need your help to-“

That aggravating one, Lance, cut her off “Excuse me, Galra, but what gives you the right to speak to her that way? What has Allura ever done to you?”

Allura stares at her boots “Now is not the time, Lance.” 

Lance’s cat tail twitched but Keith couldn’t decipher what it meant. There was probably a whole language of tail flicks and swishes known only to naguals.

“We’re here,” the small one, Pidge, said with a level of snark that shouldn’t have fit into such a small body “To get you to help us.”

“By tying me to a tree and attempting to rescue my brother, who I was perfectly capable of rescuing myself?” Keith asked, matching her sass with his own scathing words.

“Um, yes?” Hunk said “It seemed like a good idea at the time…”

“Well it wasn’t.” Keith confirmed “And I don’t give a shit about good intentions, so why don’t we go our separate ways?”

“We can’t, Keith,” Allura said “We need you.”

“Do you now?” Keith’s eyes narrowed hungrily “Pray do tell why does her most esteemed highness need help from a lowly half breed like me?” That last phrase was paired with an overly theatrical bow that Keith only used when he was mocking someone. It usually resulted in them getting angry and instigating a fistfight, which had come in handy the few times he’d been caught by Galra or the Altean Alliance.

“Voltron,” Allura said. Well, that certainly caught his attention.

“Voltron? LIke the five lions from the Quintessence Realm? That Voltron?” he asked, standing up straight immediately.

“I take it you don’t believe it’s real either?” Lance said, annoyingly appearing next to Keith and making him jump away.

“Quite the opposite, actually. I know where one of the lions are.”

“Which one?” Pidge asked.

“The Blue Lion,” Keith said “She’s actually here in Balmera. I tried to see if I could free her, but I guess I’m not her Paladin.”

Hunk gasped “How did you find her?”

“If I answer, do you promise not to use this information against me?” Keith answered Hunk’s question with his own.

Allura nodded, so he continued “I intercepted a Galra communication carrier a few weeks ago to see if I could find anything about where the prisoners from Kerberos were being kept, but all the messages were in code. One of them stood out though, because it wasn’t in a normal code it was just a pattern of wavy lines. I kept that one because it seemed important, and a few weeks later on I met this man in a tavern who said the lines looked like a drawing of these hills in Balmera called Cattus in Colorem Cæruleum ex Hills or-”

Allura jumped up from the log she had been sitting on in excitement “The Hills of the Blue Cat!”

Keith smirked, it was almost like old times, before she’s betrayed his trust forever “Bingo. So, I decided to pay The Hills of the Blue Cat a visit since I was going to be in the area anyway and lo and behold the Blue Lion found me.”

“But you’re not her Paladin,” Pidge commented “Because if you were, she’d be with you.”

“Right,” Keith confirmed “But I can take you to her.”

 

For Lance, the journey to Cattus in Colorem Cæruleum was much the same as the journey away from the Galra prison ship: painful. For a number of reasons. 

First, the tension was unreal. Allura and Keith had to stand next to each other in order to be able to touch Lance so they could teleport and Keith glared at her so much the air seemed almost filled with electricity.

Second, did he mention that everyone had to hold onto him? It was uncomfortable to say the least. Especially since that mulet brained hothead Keith insisted they bring Shiro along with them in case he woke up. And Keith made him nervous. Really, really nervous. He had no idea why. He had to resist the urge to touch the spot where Keith had touched him during their last teleport. 

Third came the fact that actually teleporting was hard. He could only go as far as he could see, so they were slowly working towards Cattus in Colorem Cæruleum in short little hops. Sometimes he teleported into open sky, so if anyone wasn’t holding on tight enough they were pretty much fucked.

Eventually they made it to the mountain where Keith had met Blue and made camp there intending to sleep for the night and look for Blue in the morning.  
Blue, however, had other plans for them.

In the middle of the night, the camp, including Keith who was sleeping a good distance away, awoke to the sound of screaming.

Allura was flat on her back, still stuck in her sleeping bag with a giant blue lioness sitting on her chest.

“Nice job, Princess,” Keith said, a biting edge to his words “You managed to wake us up effectively.”

Allura managed to glare at him, even though her eyes were wide from shock. Her normally pink marks on her face were glowing icy blue.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Lance said “It appears we’ve found a paladin for Blue.”

I was a that moment a weak and unsteady voice coughed behind them “Um, what’d I miss?”

“Shiro?” Pidge turned around.

Shiro’s eyes widened “Matt?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, that chapter sucked.


	3. III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has to work out his differences with Allura and Lance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So some of you might be wondering why there was no mid-October edit, and that's because my schedule was really crazy (so much homework, it was unreal) and I wasn't a fan of chapter 2 so I decided to take my time and write a longer and (hopefully) better chapter. I'll only be posting once a month from now on.

But you see there is a graveyard in my mouth  
FIlled with words that have died on my lips  
-Emily Palermo

Chapter III

Pidge and Shiro share a hug that is incredibly adorable, even Keith smiles a little, but it’s over too soon.  
“I’m not Matt, Shiro,” Pidge whispers “I’m Katie.”

“Katie?” he whispers “You’ve grown a lot, you know.”

“I know.” There are tears running down both of their cheeks as she cries in his arms and he gently rocks her back and forth like she’s still a child.

“Do- do you know what happened to him? Is he okay?” Pidge sniffles.

“I wish I could tell you, Katie,” silvery tears run down Shiro’s face; down already well worn tear tracks “But I can’t. I don’t know if he’s alright. I don’t know if your dad’s okay either, but he probably is.”

“Real comforting,” she murmurs into his shoulder. Aha, there she is. There’s Lance’s Pidget, who’s always stubborn and mean and the queen of sarcasm. But Katie’s there too now, and nothing he can do will take the glimmer of a little girl who’s lost too much out of her eyes. Maybe that glimmer of Katie was always there, he just never noticed. He just never looked hard enough.

Keith sits down on the ground next to where Shiro is crouching at eye level with Pidge. 

“You never told me that Matt had a sister,” he says.

“Keith?” Shiro’s eyes glisten even more, if that's possible, as he wraps his arms around his brother in a huge bear hug.

“Hey, ow! Watch the wings!” Keith squirms in Shiro’s grip, trying desperately to escape. Lance knows Keith does actually want the hug to last and is only wriggling only to give Shiro a sense of normalcy. It’s easy to see that these two are brothers, even if they’re not related by blood.

Pidge has ended up squished between Keith and Shiro and is shouting vile curses at the both of them. Yep, Pidget is back in business. 

“I can’t take it!” Hunk shouts melodramatically, wrapping his arms around all three of them “I can’t be left out of hugs!”

Keith’s face reddens. It’s a ‘help me’ sort of expression. Shiro looks a little confused as to why a stranger is suddenly hugging him, but seems to be too happily buried in fluffiness to care. There are still tears flowing in rivlets down his cheeks, but they seen to be tears of relief and joy, as well as sorrow for Pidge and Matt. 

Allura jumps in on the now-a-group-hug as well and drags Lance with her, making sure that he is a buffer in between her and Keith.

The last one to add their bulk to the pile of love is Blue, who curls her massive body around them like they’re her cubs. Now that he’s up close and personal, Lance can see that Blue’s no normal lion. For starters, she’s blue. It's not consistent blue though. Shot through her azure fur are streaks of white and silver. Her paws are completely white and so are two patches of fur that look suspiciously like Altaen marks under her eyes. Two horns curve out of her head like a dragon’s horns, just behind her ears. Her tail has a cluster of icicle-like spikes on the end instead of a tuft. To top it all off, she’s covered in frost; even leaves a trail of ice crystals behind her, but she feels comfortable to cuddle with instead of numbingly cold. Lance loves her immediately.

Lance has absolutely no idea how they ended up here. First they all hated each other, then they learned to work as a team, then Keith hated them, then Shiro and Pidge knew each other, and somehow things had escalated into a floofy ball of mushy happiness. Lance loves it immediately.

“Your shoulder pad is poking me,” Keith grumbles “And let’s now even mention where your knee is.”

“Don’t be a hypocrite,” Pidge grumbles, “Your elbow is practically in my fucking ear.”

“Language, Katie,” Shiro scolds, trying in vain to avoid Pidge’s legendary poking retaliation. Pidge ends up poking Allura by accident, who retaliates by spazzing out (Allura is SUPER ticklish) and accidentally whacking Keith. Keith’s wings snap open and Hunk goes flying. And that was the end of their merry little group hug.

Since absolutely no one would be able to sleep with a giant blue lioness hovering over them like some sort of overprotective cat-mom, the team (it was a little generous to call them a team, but whatever) started a fire where the rocky plain at the base of the mountains met the forest and warmed up.

“So who are you guys?” Shiro asked, once they were settled in, “Keith and Pidge I know obviously, and Allura, but why the hell are you three together? And what are the names of the rest of you?”

“The name’s Lance,” Lance grinned and shot Shiro with a finger gun from where he was reclining against a log.  
“I’m Hunk,” Hunk offered sheepishly.

“As for why we’re here,” Allura took over “Well as you can see, we’re attempting to assemble Voltron.”

“Ah,” Shiro nods “To fight back against Emperor Zarkon and the rest of the Galra,” he looked sheepishly at Keith “Present company excluded of course. No offence.”

Keith smiled, a real smile, not one those angry sarcastic smiles, but a one hundred percent real, actually happy smile, “None taken.”

“Do you know where any of the other lions are?” Shiro continued “That might help us on our search.”

“Us?” Keith asked “There is no way you’re coming with us- with them. We are going back to our house. You were just freed from a Galra prison ship and are in no condition to go on any dangerous journeys. Besides, there is no way I’m going with her,” he gestured sharply to Allura who hung her head and whispered “I’m sorry Keith, but I’ve been lying to you.”

Keith sighed in aggravation, his teeth clenched “Pray do tell, what is is this time?”

“I’m afraid,” she said “That you won’t be able to go. You see, you said you’d show us to the Blue Lion and in doing so, for the first time I felt an.. an energy in you. You are meant for a lion, a black one.”

“You’re kidding me,” Keith said “You want me to be the paladin of the Black Lion?”

“No Keith,” she said, a slight edge to her voice “I do not want you to bond with Black. In fact, I feel I speak for both of us when I say it’s be nice to never see you again, but as you know, I happen to be a very skilled alchemist and Black sent me dreams, dreams of you.”

“Fucking unbelievable,” Keith groaned, running his fingers through his dark hair “First you kidnap me, then expect me to work with you, which I do so you’ll leave me alone but nooooo you were lying to me and now I have to join her highness on a quest that puts me in mortal peril. This is wrong, Allura, all of it, wrong! You can’t lie and manipulate people so they’ll do what you want them to! It’s wrong and it’s sick and I don’t care if it’s for the greater good, it’s not okay!”

“I only lie because I knew you’d react this way! Had I told you what I wanted you would have stormed off immediately and there would be no chance at all!” she hissed.

“And you think this would give you a chance?!” Keith roared “For quiznak’s sake Allura, what did you hope to accomplish?”

“Shut the fuck up, Keith!” Allura cut him off, her voice high pitched and shrill. Tears threatened to leak out of the corners of her eyes.

“I’m out, Allura. You can’t stop me.” Keith knelt so that he was at eye level with Allura, who had gone back to sitting down, “Look, we both made mistakes and never really let go of them. I know you’re sorry, but I can’t forgive you when you keep lying to me.”

She nodded miserably.

Keith stood up and looked at Shiro “I don’t want to have to leave you only a few hours after I found you, but I can’t stay here. Will you come with me?”

Shiro shook his head slowly “I think I’m going to go see Adam. You know where to find me when you need me.”

Keith nodded and turned and walked away into the forest.

“Well, bye I guess?” Shiro smiled sheepishly “I need to... make amends with someone very important to me, so I can’t stick around.” And with those parting words, he turned and left too.

“I can’t believe it,” Allura moaned “I’m such a fool. How could we have only been a team for a few hours before I went and wrecked it?”

“Don’t worry, Princess,” Lance said “I’ll go talk to him.”

 

Keith heard the footsteps before he saw him.

They were light footsteps, like a fox gliding over autumn leaves. It couldn’t be Hunk or Shiro then. Pidge would have yelled something at him to get his attention he supposed, so it probably wasn’t her either. That left two options, either Allura or Lance, neither of which he wanted to see.

Fortunately, or maybe sadly, it was the latter.

“Keith, hey Keith can we talk?”

Keith ignored him.

“Keeeeeeith. Let me talk to you. Keith. Keith. Keith. Hey, Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keeeeeeeeeeeeeith. Keith. Keith- wait! Where are you going?!”  
Keith grinned to himself as he took off. Take that Lance. 

What he had not counted on was that Lance might actually be able to foil his great escape with his damn teleportation. Lance reappeared in the air and latched on to Keith.  
“Lance? What the actual fuck?” Keith screamed as he struggled to stay in the air while carrying the weight of another body. Lance used his longer limbs to wind around Keith like some sort of snake. He wrapped one arm around Keith’s neck and held on to his arm with the other. Lance’s legs were wrapped around Keith’s torso and his infuriating tail had twined itself around Keith’s left leg. Their faces were inches apart.

“Join Voltron, man!” Lance hollered, “Or I’m gonna drag you down for a very painful landing!”

Keith flapped his wings desperately, but to no avail. He was losing altitude alarmingly quickly, “Are you trying to kill us both?!”

“If that’s what it takes!”

Keith’s next wing push was the largest yet and although he gained a foot or so the force of it scent Lance and Keith’s upper bodies crashing together, “You son of a bitch!” Keith screamed, breathing heavily as he flapped “Just let go already!”

“Join Voltron!” Lance sang, only infuriating Keith.

“You know what?” Keith shouted.

“No, what?”

“WE’RE GONNA CRASH!”

Lance twisted to look at the ground, which was actually not actually close to them, just like Keith had hoped. Keith took advantage of the other man’s distraction and slightly loosened grip to violently shove Lance off of him.

As soon as Lance started falling, Keith immediately regretted the decision. What if Lance couldn’t teleport in time? What if he died? What if Allura saw? She’d never leave him alone then. Never.

Keith sighed and dove into a falcon dive. It was a move he’d spent hours and hours perfecting. He’d crashed into the ground so many times Shiro was worried he’d permanently damage himself. The worst thing that had ever happened was a broken arm. Shiro got way to overprotective sometimes.

He folded in his wings to make himself as aerodynamic as possible and sped after Lance. Normally, the move would have been flawless, a steep swoop and a level out right before he hit the ground, but attempting to catch a moving, flailing, screaming person in the middle of his dive messed him up completely.

His landing was… less than graceful.

He managed to catch Lance, but they ended up tumbling to the ground. Dirt and leaves got caught in their and clothing and Keith was sure he was going to be bruised for days.  
“Oof!” Keith let out a whuff of air as their tumble slowed to a halt. Lance landed on top of him, managing to push out what little air was left in his lungs. They lay there awkwardly for a few moments, breathing heavily, before Keith managed to mutter “I can not even put into words how much I hate you right now.”

Lance chuckled, expelling a small woosh of air pst Keith’s ear “Stop being funny, I think I broke a rib or two.”  
“Sorry.”

“No, you're not.”

“Wow, how did you guess?”

Lance rested his head on Keith’s shoulder “Now you’re just trying to make me laugh because you’re spiteful. You are one spiteful little bat.”

“Did you really just call me a bat?”

“Um no?”

Keith sighed, but was laughing internally. His face felt like it was on fire. This was more body contact then he’d had in the past year. It didn’t help that Lance’s thigh was pressing up in between his legs.

“Alright, get off of me,” he grumbled, attempting to sit up.

“Nope,” Lance smiled at him and propped his face up on his hands with his elbows resting on either side of Keith’s face.  
Keith realized that in the light of the moon Lance could probably see him blushing. That made the blush so much worse. Keith knew he didn’t like Lance, and he definitely didn’t like him that way, but a year of isolation had made his body crave contact. Apparently his body hadn’t gotten the memo that Lance was not an okay person to develop an attraction to. But even if his brain didn’t manage to knock some sense into the rest of him, it was only a physical attraction, nothing more. He hated it, hated it so much. The last thing he wanted was to be around people, yet somehow he yearned for it at the same time. It was stupid and frustrating and he fucking hated it.

“Lance,” Keith said, a warning laced into his tone.

“Keith,” Lance said back, smirking playfully.

That was it. That was the last straw. Keith needed to get away from Lance and fast. So he did the only thing he could think of. He used the unfair advantage of having wings to give his body extra momentum and flip over so he was above the other man.

“Oh come on, we’re back to this?” Lance whined “You may be stronger, but you can’t win, Keith!” He then disappeared from underneath Keith and reapered a few feet in the air above him before he came crashing down on top of the half Galra.

Keith had risen until he was on all fours, ready to take off running as soon as he stood up, but Lance’s lean body crashing down on top of him made his joints buckle and he fell back to the soft earth and dead leaves.

Lance’s chest pressed against his back as the nagual leaned over and said far too loudly for right next to his ear “Just come with us, it’s not that hard.”  
“You’re making it hard!” Keith growled “You’re acting like a moronic child!”

“We both know that’s not why you don’t want to come,” Lance said “And don’t say it’s because of Allura either, although whatever happened between the two of you might be part of it. The truth is, Keith, you don’t want to be part of a team in general, and I can’t figure out why.”

“Y-You know nothing about me!” Keith spluttered.

“Maybe,” Lance said, “But I’m sure I could learn if you gave me a chance. Please Keith, this is about more than just you.”

“You don’t think I don’t know that?” Keith spat “I want you to find someone else because I’m worried I can’t do it! I’ve never worked well with others, and now the world is depending on my cooperation! If I mess this up, thousands will die!”

“You could learn to be part of a team,” Lance said “You could try.”

“I’m sure I could, but if I try and screw up now, too much is at risk.”

“But if you don’t try at all we’re all screwed anyway,” Lance pointed out “So why not give it a shot? You don't really have anything to lose.”

They stayed silent for a few minutes, contemplating. Keith was contemplating the meaning in Lance’s words and Lance was contemplating ways to get rid of his inner therapist.

“Until we find Black,” Keith said suddenly and abruptly.

“What?”

“I’ll be part of the team or whatever, but only until we find Black. After that, if I want out, I’m out. If Black and I bond though, I’ll stay.”

Lance let out a whoop and sprang off of Keith. Keith got up more slowly and then brushed the dirt off of his outfit, which was quite nice under the cloak. He wore a dark grey vest over a white button-down with sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His pants were simple and black.

Not giving him time to thoroughly clean the muck off, Lance grabbed Keith’s forearm and tugged him towards the fire shouting “Hey Allura, Hunk, Pidge, guess who’s agreed to join!”

Keith hated to admit it, but he was smiling a little on the inside.

 

From the shadows, a figure in a black cloak watched Lance proudly tell the other Paladins of his soon-to-be-legendary triumph over the fearsome stick in the mud, Keith Kogane.  
The figure grinned to themself. Pieces were clicking together into a grand puzzle, a scheme so great it could tip the balance of the known world.

It had been the right decision to tell Keith where the Galra would be depositing Shiro when they met at the bar weeks ago.

Now, thanks to their excellent string pulling, all five Voltron Paladins were together faster than anyone could have hoped for. It would take mere weeks for the Paladins to collect the lions, instead of years.

Yes it was more than they could have ever hoped for. The figure chuckled softly as they turned away from the scene. The Paladins thought they could win the game, it hadn’t even crossed their minds that they weren’t the players, they were the pieces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any ideas who the mysterious person in the black cloak is?


	4. IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is bad at teambuilding exercises and everyone is bad at fighting dragons, especially Allura.

“It’s getting better in the worst way.”  
-Marianas Trench

Keith was terrified. He hadn’t been around a group of people in… forever really. He’d always been on the run, for almost eight years of his life. Sure, he’d met people along the way, even traveled with a few people, but only for a couple of days. A week at the most. 

Acxa was the person he’d stayed with longest, but they’d split up after reaching a fork in the road they’d been traveling. She went left towards Varakron, and he’d continued up the right side of the Techatorra Mountains.

Technically it was her fault they parted ways, although he was pretty sure she still blamed his ‘‘stupid and risky gestures with no apparent reason behind them.’’

Honestly, he still thought about her sometimes, but splitting off from Acxa was probably the best thing that had ever happened to him. Had they stayed together, he probably would have gone with her to the Galran Capital, Varakron, and would still be there, working his ass off as some sort of foot soldier in the army. Heck, he might even have died in service had he continued on with her. She was probably already dead. 

But instead, they had split up and not a fortnight later he’d run into a man leaning against a fence and soaking up the rain. The two years that followed had been the best of his life, full of many miscellaneous adventures in the Techatorras. Whether those be small adventures, like learning how to do a falcon dive, or big adventures, like stealing from the ever-slumbering Coranic Dragon, Keith had been content because he’d been with his brother.

Until that all changed when Shiro went to Kerberos and shattered the one peaceful time in Keith’s life. Then he was back to being alone and on the run again, but he at least had a purpose, to find Shiro. And when he finally had Shiro had just left him. It was incredibly unlike him. Keith got that Shiro had to go and apologize to Adam, but he thought that he’d at least stay with Keith a little longer. Just a few days even. 

Instead, Shiro seemed colder and more cut off. Sharper around the edges. Not exactly different, just shifted a bit. He was probably just traumatized by whatever the Galra did to him.

The point was, this was the first time Keith had really ever been near a group of people. And being told he had to work well with those people or else the world could end really messed with his head. Not to mention the fact that he was obviously touch-starved and spent every minute loathing those urges. His mind and body were constantly warring with each other and it left him on the verge of a breakdown. 

So yeah, he came off as someone who was pretty much angry at everything, which made the whole ‘team’ thing hard. 

Also, Lance. Arrrgh. Working with people and ignoring urges? He could probably do that. Working with people and ignoring urges while one of the people was constantly pissing him off? That was significantly harder.

And trekking across the grasslands in between Balmera and Dibazaal was not improving his attitude in the least. What he wouldn’t give to be soaring in the clear blue sky, but instead he was stuck on the ground with the team. He was learning things about grass that he didn’t really want to know. Like that, if it grew long enough, it was clingy and harder to walk through than snow. The sun was beating down on the top of his scalp and having dark hair only made the heat all the worse. Not to mention that Blue was constantly bounding through the fields looking so smugly free.

To make the torture complete, Hunk had suggested they do some bonding exercises so they could work together better. So that meant listening to twelve hours of everyone’s favorite things, and worst fears, and childhood besties for the past three days. Even worse, he was expected to contribute.

This round was worst fears. They started with Allura, who was at the front of their little line and then continued backward all the way to him. Keith hated to admit it, but he actually was learning things about his new companions.

Like Allura’s worst fear was ruining things. When Pidge asked her why, she answered “I’m the only heir to the Altaen throne, so I’ve always felt pressured to live up to my father’s legacy when I become queen. I’m terrified that if I make even one mistake, everything my father has worked to build will come crashing down and it will be all my fault.”

Hunk went next, as he was second in line, “My worst fear is not being able to help people who need it. Like if Lance and Pidge were hurt or something and I could only save one of them, I don’t know if I could choose.”

“Aww,” Lance said, “Don’t worry bro, we’re here for you!”

Keith rolled his eyes, these people were utterly ridiculous. Pidge rolled her eyes too. Great minds think alike.

“Alright bros,” there was a mocking edge in her tone “Break it up, my turn. My worst fear is that Hunk will somehow eat something with beans in it. I know, terrifying right? Next!”

“Pidge…” there was a slight warning in Hunks voice “Bonding requires honesty.”

“Can you just drop it?” Pidge muttered.

“Pidge,” Hunk’s voice was gentle, “Don’t worry, you’ll find them.”

No one said anything for a long time after that. Pidge might have tried to avoid it, but it was obvious that her worst fear was not finding her father and Matt. Keith wondered if they were still alive. Maybe, like Acxa, they’d died in Varakron. Maybe they weren’t dead. Maybe Acxa wasn’t dead either, although it would probably have taken a miracle for her to have survived.

“Well,” said Lance, “I believe it is my turn to tell my tale of woe.” That was the thing about Lance, he could get you all worked up until you wanted to punch him (repeatedly), but he also was great at reading people and seeing where joke to lighten the mood would be appropriate. The problem was, he couldn’t see when the time was inappropriate, hence the punching. “My worst fear,” he continued, sobering up “Is losing someone I care about. I lost most of my family to the Galra, and I don’t think I could live with myself if I lost anyone else.” Keith shifted uncomfortably and looked down at the ground. He could practically feel Allura glaring at him, but it was his turn…

Keith’s worst fear was people.

“People?” Lance asked incredulously “What’s wrong with people? Why would people scare you?”

“Well I dunno,” he shrugged “I’ve never really been around anyone besides Shiro for more than a week, and most people I’ve met have tried to report me to the Galra or to the Altaen Alliance so I’ve always been distrustful of other people and try to avoid them.”

“Well that explains it,” Hunk said thoughtfully, “Pay up, Pidge!”

Pidge sighed and handed over a few silver coins. “We were betting on why Keith didn’t want to be here,” she explained, “I said it was because of Allura and Hunk said it was because of people in general.”

“It’s both,” Keith stated matter of factly “And throw Lance in there too.”

“Me?” Lance squawked in outrage, “What did I ever do to you?”

“Dragged me out of the sky,” Keith’s voice was flat, but his eyes twinkled mischievously, “And then continued to sit on me until I gave in.”

“Ooh, he sat on you?” Allura asked, “According to him, he used charisma to convince you to land and then used his,” she made air quotes “‘infamous silver tongue’.”

“Yes well as fun as that would’ve been,” Keith said, “It did not happen.” It was so easy to slip back into the easy friendship he had had with Allura back when they were younger. It was so easy to forget how mad he was at her. So easy to forget how she, a fucking ten-year-old girl at the time, managed to- no, nope, not going there.

If there was one thing Keith refused to think about, it was the ending of his childhood friendship with Allura. It was too painful of a memory.

“Well,” Hunk said, ending Keith’s stroll down memory lane “That team building exercise went well! On to the next!”

 

When they were little, Keith and Allura would play hide and seek in the halls of the Castle of Lions. He was never easy to find, but she would never give up easily. She’d always had a childlike stubbornness. 

One time he hid in a closet for four hours and fell asleep. Allura found him sleeping in a closet and decided she would take a nap with him. She’d curled up next to Keith and felt his wing shift and wrap around her, providing her with a blanket.

That was when she realized that siblings didn’t have to be related by blood, people raised together could be just as close.

 

Lance had never been too smart. He’d never been a genius, but even he could tell there was something weird going on between Allura and Keith. He'd even made a mental list of what he could figure out about their apparent dislike of each other.

-Keith had mentioned that in their past they'd both made mistakes  
-Keith blamed Allura for something bad that had happened  
-Allura seemed to think that whatever she'd done was the only way  
-Keith had mentioned that her reasoning was starting to remind him of someone, at which point she'd cut him off, which probably meant that whoever this person that they'd known/they know was a bad role model  
-This thing had happened a while ago

So altogether, he knew almost nothing about this strange sense of hostility between them, and it was aggravating since he was a nosy person.

It was even starting to bother Pidge and Hunk. Hunk was bothered by the fact that they would never sleep near each other when they set up camp, that they would never talk to each other unless it was absolutely necessary, and mostly he was bothered that they were making Pidge upset because he had the biggest heart of anyone probably ever.

Pidge was annoyed that the two of them were constantly glaring and when they did talk, it usually ended up a fight. The constant shouting that usually transitioned into frosty silence was grating on her nerves and preventing her from thinking.

All in all, Keith and Allura needed to talk it out or else the team would be too screwed up to form Voltron when the time came, and the time was fast approaching. The rigid shapes of the Techatorras had come into view a few hours before the sunset, which meant that they’d reach the base of them midmorning (assuming they stopped and slept). Blue seemed to be leading them to some cave in the mountain range, at least that’s what Allura had said, so it would make sense that they'd find the next lion within the next couple of days.

He could only hope that some epiphany struck the Galra and the Princess before they made it back to Altea City to retrieve Black. 

Little did he know that the next lion they had to find rested in a very dangerous place. A place Keith had ventured to many times, but the inhabitant had only just awoken. This place was the cave of the Coranic Dragon.

 

“This was a terrible idea!!” Hunk shouted from where he was crouched behind an enormous pile of golden coins “I change my mind! I don’t want to be a paladin! I want to go back to my quiet life doing peaceful things to honor peaceful nature gods!”

Allura shouted in agreement “Yes, this is quite- ahhh… quite difficult.”

“Hold still,” the Galra on her left said, “I need to check and make sure I set your leg correctly.”

Allura whimpered and nodded. Lefty wasted no time running her gloved hands over Allura’s shin were just a moment ago there had been a bone creating a misshapen lump under the skin. “Okay it’s good,” she said.

“Hey!” the Galra on her right shouted to Keith, who was sheltering behind a different pile of gold with Pidge “Do any of you have arrows? I used all of mine and hers!” he indicated Allura.

“No, she’s the only archer!” he shouted back, “But I can have Lance get you some! Lance!!”

“Already on it!” Lance appeared next to Allura and the two Galra with his arms full of arrows “All the other ones were burnt,” he explained, “So make these count.”

Righty gave a curt nod and began firing.

Allura, despite her hate of Galra, was glad these two had shown up. The five paladins, as well as Blue and Yellow, had been badly outmatched my the Coranic Dragon. 

When they’d shown up, they hadn’t exactly tried to go stealthily since Keith had assured them that the dragon hadn’t woken in all the times he’d come here. Fuck Keith, the dragon was awake.

The Coranic Dragon, whose name was Azserdtyul, had been keeping Yellow in a birdcage suspended from the ceiling. Until Hunk had spoken (aka screamed) for the first time, Yellow had been a golden statue, but at the sound of his paladin’s voice, he’d awoken.

Allura barely had enough time to admire the huge golden form of the lion with the teeth of a saber tooth tiger and spines made of rock before he’d slashed through the golden bars of his cage like they were butter with his jagged mineral claws and charged Azserdtyul like a bull, which made sense since Yellow had stone ram horns protruding from either side of his head and out of his mane. 

Even with the two lions, Azserdtyul had been giving them a real beating. His tail had knocked Allura off of Blue’s back and sent her flying within the first few minutes of the fight. 

Azserdtyul’s lair was not exactly a cave, more like a hollowed out mountain. It was huge and completely filled with gold. Coins, goblets, jewelry, swords and even precious stones lay scattered around like chess pieces. 

Anyway, he’d managed to hit her so hard she’s gone flying into a stalactite and broken her shin. Keith had managed to catch her before she fell to her death, but it hadn’t been a pretty landing. Coins and other trinkets had sprayed up like water droplets as they skidded through the piles of gold. He’d wrapped his wing around her injured form and sheltered her with his body as they finally slid to a stop behind a mountain of gold. For all his many faults, Keith was not a bad person.

Pidge, along with Blue and Yellow, had seemed to be doing the most damage. She’d used her gift to grow to a size almost as big as Azserdtyul, who was roughly the size of one of the Castle of Lion’s spires, and then began an epic brawl with him. 

The others helped out where they could. Keith flew around slashing at Azserdtyul’s eyes with his sword. Lance gathered various weapons from the hoard and delivered them to whoever was in need. Hunk chanted as ghostly shapes of animals (primarily lions) burst from his staff and joined the attack. Yellow and Blue darted around the dragon’s feet, biting and slashing and occasionally leaping to rip at the sensitive membranes of his wings.

But even with the giant dwarf, team of giant lions, and other assorted adventurers, Azserdtyul still managed to begin to gain the upper hand. That was when an arrow embedded itself in his eye.

Allura turned to the tunnel entrance and saw two Galra standing there. The one who’d made the shot already had the bowstring drawn and fitted with another arrow. She couldn’t tell much from where she was, but he appeared to be male and his companion female. 

The two Galra took shelter behind the same pile of gold where Keith had dropped Allura. The female (Lefty) immediately made a concerned sound and looked at Allura’s leg, whilst the male (Righty) shot arrows at the dragon. 

Lefty wore armor, but it was strange and unusual armor. The make was Galra, but the metal appeared to be eclipse silver, which could only be forged by moon elves during a lunar eclipse. So she was wearing Galra forged eclipse silver armor, which might have been the rarest of all the things Allura had ever seen, and she was watching two Voltron lions and a giant dwarf fight a Coranic Dragon. In other words, it was no secret that this Galra was not ordinary. She had to be an important figure in the Galra hierarchy to have gotten someone to make her armor out of eclipse silver. And her helmet… her helmet was forged in the shape of a snarling wolf. As far as Allura knew, most Galra could care less about animals and had plain, unadorned helmets. The most startling thing about her though was her wings. Most Galra had purple, draconic looking wings, but Lefty’s were a deep shade of sapphire blue and feathered. This just proved her earlier point, this Galra was special.

Righty, on the other hand, was a lot more normal looking. Most of his outfit was black, black, black everywhere you looked. A black iron chestplate covered his torso and knee-high boots of the same material acted as footwear. The boots were worn over loose-fitting black pants with many a hidden pocket that concealed something. A cloak of (you guessed it) black silky fabric wrapped around Righty’s shoulders. The cloak, like Keith’s, had large slits cut in it for his wings. The hood was pulled up, obscuring his facial features.

“EEK! INCOMING!” Pidge screamed. Allura turned to see her friend falling backwards towards the pile of gold she Lefty, and Righty were huddled behind. 

It was really quite stunning how time slowed down in her moment of extreme terror. Allura watched as Pidge threw her arms backwards in a frantic attempt to break her fall before her back could crush the three people cowering behind the pile. She watched as Azserdtyul slammed into Pidge and accelerated her fall so there was no way those underneath her would be able to escape. She watched as Blue began to run towards her. And she startled as two arms shimmered into existence and reached for her, and she grabbed Lance not a moment too soon.  
“Are you okay?” he asked. They had teleported across the cavern.

“Yes, I’m fine, but what about Lef- what about the Galra?” she attempted to see what had happened to Pidge, Lefty, and Righty, but her view was obscured by Azserdtyul. 

“I… I could only grab one of you.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry…”

“No, no. It’s okay, Lance. They… I didn’t know them anyway. Besides, they were Galra, probably would have turned on us anyway.”

Lance’s gaze darted to Keith before coming back to her, “I’m not sure-”

“Keith is different,” she said. Keith may be a jerk that was holding on to things that didn’t matter anymore, but her instincts trusted him. He wasn’t evil like the rest of the Galra, but that didn’t mean she liked him.

“Uh, no offence,” Hunk said from Allura’s other side, startling her, “But how exactly is Keith different? I mean, he’s not as bloodthirsty as like, Zarkon, but if that’s true for him, could it not be true for others?”

“Fight now discuss racism later!” Keith called, down to them “Allura’s new buddies are fine and, well, things just got a lot more interesting!”

“How interesting?” she called.

“VERY, VERY INTERESTING!” Pidge shouted.

Lance grabbed Allura’s waist and Hunk’s wrist and teleported them up to the top of the mountain of gold that Keith had just landed on so they could see what was going on. And what was going on was certainly… interesting.

Lefty was flying around the Coranic Dragon much like Keith had done, but she was much more impressive. 

Her sapphire wings were even more gorgeous fully extended and their falcon like feathers allowed her to make sharp dives and twists that would have been impossible for someone like Righty or Keith to do with their draconic wings.

But even stranger was what had happened to her crossbow. She appeared to be shooting beams of white energy from it, instead of normal bolts. A similar white energy was gathered in the hands of Righty.

Hunk gasped, “Is that…?”

“Quintessence,” Allura answered “But how? Galra can’t be mages!”

“Obviously you don’t know the first thing about Galra, Highness,” Keith said dryly, “Half-breeds such as myself, that blue one, and apparently that guy can tap into the elements just fine, regardless of our Galra heritage.”

Mages, as they were called, were able to tap into the six elements, Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Life, and Quintessence. The lions were supposedly connected to the elements, Blue and Water, Yellow and Earth, Red and Fire, Green and Life, BLack and Air, and they also came from the Quintessence realm, further proving this theory. Mages were rare, and Quintessence mages most of all. Galra mages? Unheard of. And yet the was a half-Galra Quintessence mage fighting a Coranic Dragon with another half-Galra that wore Galra-forges eclipse silver armour and her weapon had obviously been enchanted by her companion.

Who were these people? No one but Zarkon had the kind of power and influence to learn Quintessence magic or get items like Lefty’s, so how did two half-breeds, the lowest in the Galra hierarchy, become so powerful?

The answer came suddenly when Lafty took a sharp turn, barely missing Azserdtyul’s tail. The tail did, however, manage to take off her helmet, exposing a face framed by blue hair.

Keith inhaled sharply.

“What?” Lance asked him. His ears had obviously picked up the sharp huff of breath.

Keith stared at Lefty, mouth slightly open in a mix of shock, awe, and disbelief, “It’s Acxa.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Screw deadlines. I got Mononucleosis halfway through November and then I just had a cold so that was fun. It's always gonna be something, so expect 3k words every six months because I ain't got time to write an I'm now being hit with the full force of Season Eight depression so...


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